Banner holiday season for MCAS pet adoptions

Published 4:43 pm, Thursday, January 2, 2014

Adoptions were high this holiday season at the Montgomery County Animal Shelter. With a December live release rate of 75.9 percent, the MCAS has a lot to celebrate.

The live release rate is the percentage of animals that leave the shelter’s care alive, minus the severely injured or ill, feral and aggressive animals, or those unable to sustain life on their own.

That figure “is a banner month for us,” Montgomery County Animal Cruelty Investigator Tim Holifield said. “We usually see 55-58 percent, sometimes 60 percent, so this was a great month.”

According to MCAS Asilomar Accords, a monthly report made by the shelter to the county, 920 animals were adopted in the month of December, 216 were transferred to local rescue groups and 72 were returned to their owners.

These numbers are up from November 2013, when 663 were adopted, 165 were transferred to rescue groups and 67 were returned to their owners.

“The holiday season is usually the best time in a shelter animal’s life,” Holifield said. “People come in and adopt pets for holiday gifts.”

The MCAS also works with more than 150 animal rescue groups in the area as well to find homes for animals.